Berkeleyan

New director in place to coordinate campus sustainability effortsA résumé that includes natural-resource management and climate-change study

30 January 2008

Lisa McNeilly starts work as the campus's first director of sustainability on Wednesday, Jan. 30. The position, reporting to Vice Chancellor for Administration Nathan Brostrom, will (in the words of Chancellor Birgeneau) "better coordinate the many initiatives currently under way to reduce the long-term environmental impact of campus operations."

Lisa McNeilly (Peg Skorpinski photo)

McNeilly is charged with creating and managing a campus Office of Sustainability, a key step, says Brostrom, toward "achieving the campus's long-term sustainability goals, fostering a culture of sustainability at the organizational and individual levels, and integrating sustainability into the classroom."

In coordinating campus sustainability initiatives, McNeilly will support the efforts of the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Sustainability (CACS), the Cal Climate Action Partnership (CalCAP), the Berkeley Environmental Alumni Network (BEAN), the award-winning Berkeley Green Campus Program, as well as the work of Environment, Health, and Safety, the green-building and energy-conservation programs in Facilities Services, the sustainability manager at the Office of the President, and the many other campus units, student organizations, and public agencies working in this area.

"It is inspiring and a bit daunting to be asked to promote sustainability at a place that is already a leader in the field," McNeilly said last week before taking up her new role. Yet, as Brostrom points out, she has already dealt with many of the most crucial and complex aspects of this position in her previous roles.

McNeilly formerly served as northern Arizona regional program director for the Nature Conservancy, managed sustainability and compliance for a major services provider at Grand Canyon National Park, directed international programs at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, and during the Clinton administration served as special assistant to the White House Climate Change Task Force.

She holds a master's degree in public policy from Princeton and an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Davidson College.